LaSalle-Peru too much for Burlington Central

MOLINE — In the words of Burlington Central baseball coach Kyle Nelson, any win beyond the regional championship “is gravy.”

The Rockets found themselves smothered in the stuff Saturday after winning two playoff games to secure the first sectional title in program history.

Monday night near the confluence of the Rock and Mississippi Rivers, the gravy boat capsized.

Determined LaSalle-Peru supported starting pitcher Noah Lamboley with 10 hits and errorless defense, and he kept Central scoreless until the sixth inning of a 10-1, complete-game victory in the Class 3A Augustana supersectional at Duane R. Swanson Stadium.

The victory advances LaSalle-Peru (33-6) to a state semifinal against Troy Triad (32-8) at Silver Cross Stadium in Joliet on Friday at 10 a.m.

The loss extinguished the deepest postseason run in Burlington Central baseball history. The Rockets (28-11) finish their season as Big Northern Conference East co-champions, regional champions and sectional champions.

“Someday it’s going to happen,” Nelson, Central’s seventh-year said of reaching the state finals. “The seniors did a great job of setting the tone for future classes to come. We’ve had some pretty good teams over the years, and they’ve made it farther than any of those other teams. They really nice did a nice job of, hopefully, paving the way for great things to come.”

The Cavaliers showed no ill effects of losing their head coach on short notice. LaSalle-Peru coach Bill Booker was not in attendance after the school self-imposed a one-game suspension due to a violation of an IHSA bylaw. The Cavaliers admit they took live batting practice recently from an alum who plays college baseball, which is a violation.

“We were informed this afternoon that we may have violated an IHSA policy, a bylaw,” said LaSalle-Peru athletic director Greg Sarver, who, like Booker, was not rehired in his current capacity for the 2012-13 school year. “Like anything that comes in, we investigated and found we did violate a bylaw. We talked to coach Booker and we talked to the IHSA.

“Coach Booker took full responsibility for his program. He said we did violate, so he missed tonight’s game. And that will be it.”

The Cavaliers struck first against Burlington Central starting pitcher Michael Scott (3-3), who entered the game with a 1.52 ERA in 50 innings. Levi Ericson’s RBI single was the third of 4 straight L-P hits, but Scott minimized the damage by inducing an inning-ending double play, turned by shortstop Zach Ranney and second baseman Riley Jensen.

However, the Cavaliers struck for 3 runs in the third inning and 2 more in the fourth to take a 7-0 lead. Kyle Jenkins’ 2-run double in the fourth put the Rockets in a 4-0 hole, and Adam Happ’s sacrifice fly bulged the deficit to 7 runs.

LaSalle-Peru ended what little suspense remained by scoring 3 more runs in the top of the sixth on Casey Huebbe’s 3-run triple off Central reliever Alex Bell.

Burlington Central nearly broke through in the second inning. After Jensen and Kevin Zasada singled with two outs, Reed Hunnicutt singled to left field. However, Jensen was thrown out trying to score from second on a relay throw.

“I think it’s probably a bit of a different game if we can tie the game there,” Nelson said.

If there was a sliver lining for the Rockets, it came in the sixth inning. Down 10-0, Tanner Scott led off with his 13th double of the season and scored one out later on Blake Alexander’s RBI single.

Not only did the run extend the game to a full seven innings, it snapped a streak of 31 straight scoreless postseason innings pitched by the LaSalle-Peru staff.

“There’s pride there,” said Tanner Scott, who finished the season with 13 home runs to finish tied for third place on the IHSA’s career home run list with 42. “I’m just glad we didn’t get 10-runned.”

Lamboley hit Zasada with a pitch to lead off the seventh, then got a flyout to right field, a groundout and another flyout to right to end it.

Though disappointed to be denied a state bid, the Rockets took heart in knowing they blazed the first trail to a supersectional.

“Every team that comes through here from now on is going to be like, ‘This was the team to make it, to first break down the door,’” Tanner Scott said. “Everyone else can look to this team.”